The accidental squeeze. Bridge Column for December 24, 2004, Harvey Bernstein Special To The Plain Dealer East-West vulnerable. South deals. North S: A 4 3 H: A 4 D: K Q J 7 3 C: A 8 2 West East S: 7 2 S: J 10 9 8 5 H: 10 8 2 H: 9 7 6 D: 10 9 8 5 4 D: A C: K 9 7 C: J 10 6 5 South S: K Q 6 H: K Q J 5 3 D: 6 2 C: Q 4 3 The Bidding: South West North East 1H Pass 2D Pass 2NT Pass 6NT Pass Pass Pass Thanks to Bernie Heyman of Shaker Heights for this hand from a recent duplicate bridge game. Heyman held the South cards. John Marhofer of Akron sat North. After a brief auction, West led the ten of diamonds. Had Heyman been able to see through the cards he would have played low from dummy and when the singleton ace of diamonds fell from East, he could have claimed twelve tricks. Unfortunately Heyman covered the ten of diamonds with the king, so the best he could count off the top was two diamonds, three spades, five hearts, and a club. This came to only eleven tricks - one short of the contract. East, in with the ace of diamonds, had to pick a suit to continue with. Had he selected the jack of clubs there would be no tale to tell so he must have got off lead with the jack of spades. Heyman won this trick and played two rounds of spades and four rounds of hearts to get to this five card ending: North S: Void H: Void D: Q J 7 C: A 8 West East S: Void S: J H: Void H: Void D: 9 8 5 D: Void C: K 9 C: J 10 6 5 South S: Void H: 7 D: 6 C: Q 4 3 When he played the seven of hearts, West could not stand the pressure. If he pitched a diamond, a club would be thrown from dummy. If, instead, West pitched a club, dummy would pitch a diamond. In either case, the last five tricks came in for the declarer, making six no trump. Heyman will be the first to tell you that the squeeze was not planned. After all, he did not know who held the king of clubs. He simply took his major suit tricks and watched the discards. It soon became obvious that West was having a problem. Without the king of clubs, there would be no problem, and also, no squeeze. Congratulations to the following local players who have achieved new levels of success in the quest for master points. Mort Pierce of Chagrin Falls has accumulated 2,500 master points and is a gold life master. Herbert Scibbe of Brecksville and Marcia Richling of Medina have passed the 1,000 master point level and are silver life masters. Virginia Colville of East Cleveland, Charlene Collins of Willoughby,and Arthur Obrock of Shaker Heights have passed the 500 master point level and are bronze life masters. John Hanson of Solon, Doug Henderson of Cleveland, and Lia Staaf of Rocky River have satisfied all of the requirements and are now life masters. _______________________________________________________ Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon.